Mission

A human-centered approach to advance the state of the art in emerging IT ecosystems

LATECE (pronounced “la-tess”) brings its mission to life through action-research  projects led with partners from industry and different levels of government, applied research led by a network of international-level researchers, and through pure basic research. Its work is centered on the notion of “robust tech” where any ecosystem or application must simultaneously be usable, useful, and used.

Its mission also centres on sustainability, notably the importance of training the next generation of researchers. In practice, this translates into LATECE members supervising students not only in terms of their academic endeavours, but also in terms of getting their energy and new ideas to flourish and be disseminated through publications and presentations. The next generation is indeed where theory and practice come together in the production and development of emerging knowledge. It is in this sense that funding research is so pivotal to the field. It is about funding the future.

LATECE’s focus on sustainability also sets the stage for networking activities, knowledge sharing, and knowledge mobilization which, by extension, support the affordability and accessibility of innovation, a notion that goes beyond just physical and technical accessibility, but indeed social, ethical, and economic accessibility.

Decidedly forward looking, LATECE also works on developing strategic partnerships here in Québec as well as around the world with everyone from software publishers, IT integration experts, builders, operators, and users to communicators, managers, and social scientists, each of whom are first-line actors in the field of smart connected applications. It is the immense potential of these technologies to drive positive social impacts that ultimately connects and rallies these experts together into high performing, dedicated and, knowledgeable teams. It is its transdisciplinary approach that helps drive the kind of innovation that puts humans at the centre of the lab’s design and development and the next generation at the centre of their mission.

The work led at LATECE also looks to address, explore, and offer solutions to the technical, economic, social, and ethical questions that arise from the omnipresence and innate adaptability of connected applications and ecosystems, particularly in a world now driven by the presence of AI. In light of this, LATECE seeks to be a hub for dedicated and transdisciplinary research and for partnerships that can both serve humankind in this highly connected world by acting as catalyst for new ideas that are as bold as they are ethically minded.

LATECE is driven by current-day, socially relevant research questions often brought to them by industry. These in turn drive the lab’s mission to solve problems through knowledge co-creation, knowledge transfer, and knowledge mobilization. Industry partners engage with the lab’s highly qualified workforce and, together, they engage in developing solutions that, once realized, benefit society at large through the ongoing advancement and mobilization of knowledge.